WASHINGTON -- This year's class of White House Fellows, a selective, prestigious program that places young public servants in the highest levels of the federal government, includes Hoover's Jaron Wharton.

The 33-year-old Army major is spending a year at the U.S. Agency for International Development, a non-military agency that plays a key side-by-side role with the military in the war zone. The fellowship is a perfect pairing for Wharton, a combat-tested veteran with a master's degree from Harvard. He said he sought the placement with USAID.

"Their work in development is as critical to national security as efforts in diplomacy and defense," Wharton said via email. "During my initial deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq, I learned the significance of the combat mission but the equal importance and challenges of offering development and assistance."

Wharton, a 1996 graduate of Hoover High School, has four deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan as an infantry officer, three of them leading soldiers in the 101st Airborne Division under then-Maj. Gen. David Petraeus.

"I was always impressed with his ability to think strategically and emphasize the importance of comprehensive, whole-of-government responses to difficult challenges," Wharton said about Petraeus, who is now the director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

The White House Fellows Program is a highly competitive nonpartisan program started in 1964 by then-President Lyndon B. Johnson to nurture leadership and public service. A class of fewer than 20 is selected each year from around the country to work and study in Washington in the executive branch of government. Alumni are expected to return to their careers with a more sophisticated understanding of the inner workings of government and improved decision-making and leadership skills.

The list of former White House fellows includes some of the nation's most successful leaders in business, politics and the military: Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback; former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell; historian and author Doris Kearns Goodwin; and Myron Ullman, chairman and CEO of J.C. Penney Co. Inc.

Military man

Wharton's resume to date fits the type. He is a third-generation service member but the first graduate of the U.S. Military Academy in his family. His father is a decorated Vietnam veteran, and he described his late mother as "a flower child."

"They always emphasized public service but not necessarily through military service. For me, I wanted to serve as a military officer since I was young and West Point provided the best opportunity to achieve this goal -- serving my country lies at the core of my identity and my values," Wharton said.

He earned a master's in public administration degree at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and most recently was in the Office of the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon as special assistant to the under secretary for defense/policy.

His family has since moved away from Hoover, but he does get back to Birmingham to visit friends. He's married to a fellow Army major and the couple is expecting a child in December.

After his fellowship is complete next fall, Wharton said he plans to return to a tactical infantry battalion as an operations officer.

"In the long term, I plan to continue to serve my community through a career in public service," he said.